Spreading Toxicity
by ToxicMeltdown
Summary: Just a normal SAO fan fiction? Maybe, maybe not. This will be a story following an original character through Sword Art Online. Of course every great main character needs a great sidekick and this one is no different. He's got his trust companion Argo at his side. If there will be any pairings it will be OC and Argo, but that depends on if I decide to develop it that far.


**A/N Well, here I go again. In the past few days I've come up with a bunch of different story ideas. So when I thought of doing a self insert of sorts, I said why the hell not. This story will be a Sword Art Online story. I love the idea behind Sword Art Online. **

**Whether you love it or hate it you have to admit the idea is brilliant especially with how much people fantasize about virtual reality, and I doubt anyone wants it more than I do. **

**While I do admit that the Alfheim Online portion is pretty dull compared to the first half, I can't stand the people who hate it specifically because of Kirtio's cousin liking him. I do not understand emotions very well, kind of nonexistent, but from a logical stand point the only thing wrong with incest is having children, which most people agree is an awful thing to do even if they partake in incest. **

**Anyways, this story will be based around a character who will be modeled after me. Obviously they won't share every aspect of my personality, mostly for keeping it entertaining, and because this is 8 years in the future. By then I'll be too old for my liking. **

**Also this story will have some changes to the plot, I never read the light novel/manga mostly because I tried and it just doesn't have the appeal the anime did, so I don't know what happened in there, but I will not go from the first floor to the 50th in between chapters I assure you. **

**If I take this story all the way to the end of Aincrad I should warn that it will probably go way off from the original plot. **

**I think that I have ranted enough at this point and I can't really think of anything else to say.**

**On to the first chapter of "Spreading Toxicity".**

* * *

**United States - 2022**

**(A/N Warning I have a strong distaste for my country of residence. Don't get butt hurt if I bash it to pieces.)**

In New York City, New York **(A/N Original. I know.) **we come to a rather large skyscraper scaling around 50 floors. The purpose or reason behind this tower isn't very important, but the people inside are.

On the 45th floor we find a large laboratory. Inside are several people. A good amount are adults running around in lab coats working on things, but there were four people towards one section of the laboratory of specific importance.

The first was a man who stood around 5'10", wore a business suit, had a very slim build, and looked to be in his late 30's. The second man stood around 5'8", wore a lab coat, had a medium build, and was in his early thirties. The third person was a woman who stood around 5'4", also had a lab coat on, had a very petite build, and looked to be in her mid 20's. The fourth and final person was a teenage boy who was about 16, stood at just over 6', had on a pair of jeans and a black jacket zipped up, and he had a very slim build. He was by far the most important of the four to this story.

Currently the man in the lab coat was talking. He had dark brown hair that was short.

"We should be ready for everything."

"Good. It is annoying that this requires so much prior work, but necessary considering everything," the man in the business suit commented.

The woman nodded, "Now all we need is for your son to finish with his side of the preparations."

The now noted father looked towards his son who was typing away at a nearby computer. After a few more seconds he stood up and walked over.

"Man, Kayaba Akihiko is a genius. He or someone else must have noticed the root I used before because I had to use a completely different one this time. I have to give them credit where credit is due."

He had longish sandy blonde hair that went to just above his shoulders and wore a toboggan that covered most of it except the last few inches. His eyes were a deep shade of blue and he had two piercings in the upper part of his left ear.

"I was starting to think you had gotten rusty son."

Said teen just glanced at his father before walking over to the bed.

"Breaking into security systems half way across the world is not an easy task, especially since I couldn't leave any traces. So is everything else ready?"

"Everything else is fine. We are ready to begin," the woman spoke.

He nodded and sat down on the bed before picking up the Nerve Gear. The hardware used for the new and upcoming virtual reality games. To say it was a marvel of engineering was an understatement. Just holding it in his hands made him excited.

The nerve gear had been released about a two months ago, and about a month ago the first every Virtual Reality MMO had been released, Sword Art Online. It was only a beta so very few people got to play and it was only in Japan. He had wanted to play it and his father had saw some interesting business opportunities. Together they got him into the beta and he played through it learning everything he could.

Now his father wanted him to be one of the people to be a big player in beating the game. It would make a very large publicity stunt when he revealed who his father was and how they had managed to play the game. Especially since how they were playing the game wasn't technically illegal. Technically.

He was a rather closed off and distant person in real life so he was home schooled. He found the work extremely easy so he didn't really have to worry about that. He had been playing games as long as he could remember and had started really getting into computers when he was 12. Ever since then it had escalated into knowing several different forms of coding and building computers for fun. He was also a huge fan of RPG's and even though he wasn't much of a team player he did enjoy soloing MMO's.

Now it was finally time for him to go back into the world of Sword Art Online. Saying he was excited was a massive understatement.

He pulled off the toboggan and sat it on a nearby table. He swept his hair to the side before putting on the helmet and laying on the bed.

"I'll see you all in a few hours."

They all responded in kind. He simply ignored them and began the system.

"Link start."

It began going through all of the customary "welcome to" screens. He quickly went through them and signed into his account luckily he already had one from the beta test. He had to remake a character, but since he always played games as himself he kept most physical things exactly the same.

After only a few minutes he had finished his character. Though when he finished a new screen popped up.

_"You participated in the beta test for Sword Art Online. All beta testers are allowed to choose a weapon from any category they wish to start the game with."_

"Not going to complain I guess."

It looked like there was about 10 to 15 different weapons to choose from. It didn't seem like there was an obvious choice at first. That was until he came to one weapon in the list. His eyes widened slightly and he grinned in anticipation.

"Oh, I am definitely taking that."

* * *

**Inside Aincrad - Floor 1**

He appeared in the large starting area of Aincrad. He pulled his weapon of choice from his back testing it out.

It was a large five foot long pole with a foot long blade on the end. In Japan it was known as a naginata. He swung it around a few times grinning as he did so. He could tell that this was going to be a really enjoyable weapon. He put the weapon back in its place on his back before looking around.

"Okay, now I need to find Argo."

Now that would be difficult. Finding her could take quite a while, maybe even hours unless...

"Maybe I can message her."

He quickly opened the menu and went to contacts. He grinned seeing that he still had his contacts. That was useful. He quickly asked her where she was. It only took a few minutes to receive a reply.

_"Beginning area, east side."_

He nodded before heading over there. It only took a minute to walk over there. He scanned the area looking for her and found her. She stood at about 5" and had a petite build. She wore brown cargo pants, black sandals that went up to her shins, and had on a brown cloak covering her upper body. You could see green hair and eyes under her hood and two daggers were visible on her belt.

She looked up at him and smiled before running over and tackling him. He chuckled and patted her on the back.

"Good to see you too, Argo."

She pulled away blushing slightly.

"So you got to choose a different weapon as well?" she asked.

He nodded and pulled out the naginata.

"Yeah. Figured I would go with something different. I see you went with daggers not very original, but definitely suits you."

He again sheathed the large pole-arm. He just now noticed his own clothes. Brown pants, black shirt, and a leather breast plate.

"Well what should we do first?" she asked.

"Hmm, I say we go killing some basic mobs and make sure everything is like we remember. We can start going through quests and towns tomorrow."

She nodded and they headed out of town towards a grassy plain.

* * *

**1 Hour Later - Grassy Plains**

He swung his naginata around cutting apart boars that came near him. Argo finished off any that ran away from him. After around 20 kills they both stopped to rest. Argo placed both of her daggers on her belt and sat down on the grass.

"So what did you choose for your starting skills?" he asked her.

"Well obviously daggers and I decided on hiding for my second skill. What about you?"

"I chose pole-arms obviously. That contains quite a few different weapons so I thought it would be fitting and I decided on going with parrying. Seemed like a useful skill and from what I've gathered it should be able to break weapons that are damaged if you have a high enough skill level. We should probably both pick battle healing for our third skill when we unlock our next skill slot."

She nodded and they both stared at the sun set that was starting. After a few minutes he noticed that she was staring at him.

"What is it?"

"Why is that your name?" she asked pointing at something.

He couldn't actually see it, but he knew she was talking about the bar under her's that had his health and name.

"Why do you ask?"

"Your name is different from everyone else's. During the beta I never really paid it any mind, but everyone else goes by some sort of name. You don't. Your's is just Toxic, nothing else. Why is that?"

The now dubbed Toxic ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

"Well that's fairly simple I guess. Names are difficult to translate."

"What do you mean "translate"?

"Maybe I'll tell you later, but right now isn't the best time. I'll contact you later on the forums and tell you."

She stood up and dusted her knees off before looking at him. She had a serious look on her face which made him grin.

He reached out and tussled her hair, "Don't look so serious."

She growled slightly causing him to chuckle.

"We should probably sign off until a little later. Make sure everything is okay with our bodies."

She nodded and hugged him quickly before turning around to open her menu. He was about to do the same, but was interrupted.

"Hey, Toxic, this is going to sound crazy, but the log out button is missing."

She turned to him and he had a very serious look on his face. He quickly opened his menu and scanned through the options, even finding a couple of new ones that weren't in the beta, but no log out button in sight. What could that mean.

"Maybe its just a bug," she suggested.

"No, something like this would never get past a genius like Kayaba Akihiko. No, if something like this is in the game, it has to be intentional."

About that time a bright red light appeared around them. Argo looked at him wondering what was going on.

"Forced -," was all he got out before they vanished.

* * *

**Town of Beginnings - Starting Area **

"- teleport," he finished.

They were back in the starting area of the game and it seemed like everyone else playing was either there or teleporting in. He looked over at Argo who was also looking around. He reached over pulling her behind him.

"Stay near me, I don't know what's going on here."

She looked like she wanted to argue, but she just nodded. Once it seemed that everyone was there and the teleporting had stopped the sky turned dark and then it red hexagons started covering it like a grid. Once the entire sky was covered a weird red ooze started to fall from the sky. It started to form into a shape, and before long there was an extremely large figure clothed in a red cloak and hood.

**"Hello everyone, I am Kayaba Akihiko, designer of Aincrad and creator of the world of Sword Art Online."**

Several people in the crowd started whispering and muttering at this. The figure dubbed as Kayaba swiped his hand through the air causing a menu similar to their's to pop up in front of him.

**"As many of you have probably already noticed in your menu there is no log out button. Let me make this very clear, this is not a bud, but a feature of Sword Art Online. You can not log out of SAO and no one from the outside can take off the Nerve Gear in the real world a microwave pulse will be released into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."**

Several people started trying to leave the area thinking this was all a joke, but they were stopped by an invisible barrier.

"He's joking, right Toxic? There's no way this can be real," Argo asked.

"No, the head gear uses something very similar to a microwave, if you turned it up high enough it could turn your brain to mush."

**"Despite my warning several people have tried removing the Nerve Gear from several players in the real world. Because of this the game now has 213 less players than when we began. They have been permanently deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."**

Several people started freaking out at this point. Kayaba swiped his hand again causing several news reports, photos, and videos.

**"As you can see news outlets from all over have coverage of everything going on and the deaths. The likelihood of the gear being removed at this point is minuscule. Maybe that will give you some comfort as you try to clear the game."**

**"You should also remember the following. There is no longer to revive someone once their life has reached zero. If this happens your avatar will be deleted from the system and the Nerve Gear in real life will fry your brain, killing you."**

That made this a lot trickier. It would take long enough as is to complete the game under normal circumstances. Most of the people had stopped making any kind of noise at this point, most likely from the shock of this news.

**"There is only one way for a player to escape Castle Aincrad. You must complete all 100 floors of the game, defeat the final boss, and claim victory. This is the one and only way for you to escape."**

Several people spoke out at this.

"We can't do that."

"That's impossible."

"No one can clear all 100 floors."

Kayaba seemed to ignore this and continued his speech.

**"One last thing. I have placed an item in all of your item storage inventories. Please take a look."**

Toxic glanced down and opened his inventory. He did in fact have a new item, a mirror. He took it out and a small hand mirror appeared in his hands. Though when he looked into it nothing happened. He thought that was strange so he glanced around.

Everyone was changing in appearance. A bright flash occurred and when it disappeared he looked around to be surrounded by completely different people. He didn't know why they were changing though so he looked back at Argo.

She was now almost a foot shorter than before, but aside from that she looked almost exactly the same. When she saw how she looked and looked up at him he grinned making her punch him in the side.

"So that is how you really look?" he asked.

"Yes. Though I'm surprised that is how you actually looked. I thought you just made yourself taller. Wait, how can it tell what our bodies look like?" she asked.

"Well aside from the fact that telling the shape of the body through the brain is fairly easy, remember it also had us do calibrations when we first used it."

Several people in the crowd were freaking out especially the ones who were hanging all over girls that weren't actually girls.

**"Now I know some of you are wondering why. Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, do this to all of you? The answer is very simple. I wished to create and control a world of my own design. As you can see I have accomplished this task."**

**"This now marks the end of the tutorial and the beginning of your journey. From this point forward death is permanent. I wish you all the best of luck."**

With that he disappeared and the sky returned to normal. People started to rampage and scream. As they were doing this Toxic noticed that the barrier keeping them in had vanished. He reached back and grabbed Argo throwing her onto his back.

"Hold on Argo. We have to get going."

She tried to hit him for moving so suddenly but had to stop for fear of falling off and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"What the hell are you doing Toxic?"

He was speeding down the empty streets heading to exit the Town of Beginnings.

"I don't know if all of this is true, but I would rather not risk it, so we are heading out as soon as possible to get the as much experience and good loot as possible. Between the two of us there isn't much we don't know in this game so I figure we have a better chance together. Plus you're the only one I trust."

She smiled at that. She was glad he trusted her and would like to have someone watching her back, and there was no one she trusted more than him.

They suddenly came to a stop and he set her down before turning around to her with a serious look.

"You picked up quite a some throwing knives earlier in town didn't you?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Okay. I know you are going to object, but the most efficient way of doing things would be for you ride on my shoulders and to either attack anything I miss or finish off anything I don't completely kill."

She huffed in annoyance, but she knew that he was right. Plus her life was more important than her pride.

"Fine, but you better not do anything perverted."

He feigned hurt and kneeled down.

"Who me? I would never do anything of the such."

She huffed and climbed up on to his shoulders. After making sure she was on well he stood up and started off again, his naginata in his right hand.

They continued running for several hours. Once it had been about thirty minutes and no more enemies had shown up Argo spoke up.

"Hey Toxic? Could you tell me about why you don't use an actual name now?"

He sighed trying to think of a decent answer.

"Yeah, but it can wait until tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

* * *

**A/N So how was it? I also should mention that unlike most of my stories I won't be trying to make the chapters super long. I don't really like to write short chapters, but I think it will fit better. Though I very highly doubt a chapter will ever be less than 3,000 words. **

**Also if anyone has read my other SAO story "Seven Deadly Blades" you will realize that the main characters have the same name and nearly identical personalities. This isn't very surprising since they are both modeled after me. Also I know they both use the name Toxic, but it is the name I prefer to go by on the internet so they should as well.**

**I don't know if I will continue this series, and if I do how long it will go on, but I guess we will see.**

**If anyone has any suggestions, tips, or criticisms it is always appreciated.**

**Until next time, **

**ToxicMeltdown Out.**


End file.
